Gillibrand's military sexual assault bill rejected in Senate

After a year of lobbying her colleagues, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's bill to change how the Pentagon handles sexual assault cases was rejected by the Senate.

Gillibrand isn't looking at her legislation's defeat as a failure, just a temporary setback in her effort to remove sexual assault cases from the military chain of command. Although 55 senators supported it, that wasn't enough to overcome a bipartisan filibuster.

Gillibrand says her work isn’t over.

"None of us will walk away," Gillibrand said. "We will not stop our efforts. We will continue to work harder than ever in the coming year to strengthen our military.”

The Senate did adopt other reforms intended fix a culture that allowed a reported twenty six thousand sexual assaults in the armed services last year.

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New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is on a personal crusade to change the military culture that’s allowed sexual assaults to go unpunished, and is attempting to push a bill through the Senate.

Gillibrand remembers when the issue of sexual assaults in the military really got on her radar. It was while watching a 2012 documentary called The Invisible War.